Federico Fellini

Often called the most influential director of the 20th century, Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini was a master of the surreal, using striking images, autobiographical detail and disjointed narratives...
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30 Incredible Facts You Never Knew About Quentin Tarantino Movies

Fans of Quentin Tarantino's films have come to expect certain things from his films. Whether that expectation is excessive violence, long camera shots, a barefoot woman, clever dialogue, fake product placement, or just a slew of four-letter words, Tarantino rarely ever fails his audiences. To celebrate one of our favorite filmmakers, we take a look at 30 facts about his movies you may not know. Trust us, this is just the tip of the iceberg in this case though.
1. Quentin Tarantino wrote the part of Jules in Pulp Fiction specifically for Samuel L. Jackson after seeing him audition for Reservoir Dogs.
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Jackson had auditioned for the role of the man who trains Mr. Orange, but the part eventually went to Randy Brooks.
2. Inglourious Basterds star Eli Roth has claimed he was able to get into the mindset of the violent "Bear Jew" character because of the costumes.
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He's admitted that "wool underwear will make you want to kill anything" and also the music of Hannah Montana, which his girlfriend added to his iPod. It somehow filled him with the rage he needed to wield his baseball bat.
3. While filming Django Unchained, Leonardo DiCaprio had to stop filming at one point as he struggled using so many racial slurs.
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Samuel L. Jackson responded by pulling him aside and saying, "Motherf**ker, this is just another Tuesday for us."
4. Daryl Hannah's Kill Bill character, Elle Driver, has the code name "California Mountain Kingsnake." In fact, hers is the only Deadly Viper Assassination Squad code name that isn't a venomous snake.
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The name is fitting since she also isn't able to poison The Bride when she's in the hospital because Bill calls her before she can.
5. The iconic dance scene featuring Uma Thurman and John Travolta at Jack Rabbit Slim's is copied as an homage to Federico Fellini's 8½.
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6. According to Tarantino, German-born actor Til Schweiger (Sgt. Stiglitz) had always refused film roles that required him to don a Nazi uniform; he only agreed for Inglourious Basterds because he would be ["doin' one thing and one thing only,] killin' Nazis."
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7. At the very beginning of Kill Bill's O-Ren Ishii fight scene, Lucy Liu, in Japanese, says, "I hope you've saved your energy. If you haven't, you may not last 5 minutes."
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It is then exactly 4 minutes and 59 seconds until the fatal blow of the scene.
8. The cops who appear at the hospital in Death Proof after Stuntman Mike's first crash are played by real life father-son duo Michael Parks and James Parks.
Miramax Films
They're also the officers who respond to the wedding day massacre in Kill Bill. Michael Parks was first introduced as police officer Earl McGraw in the Tarantino-penned From Dusk Till Dawn; his son, James, was introduced as Deputy Edgar McGraw in From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. Neither of their characters survive in the From Dusk Till Dawn films.
9. The real name of the Mr. Blonde character from Reservoir Dogs, played by Michael Madsen, is Vic Vega. Vega is also the last name of John Travolta's character Vince in Pulp Fiction.
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Tarantino has stated that the characters are brothers whom he intended to make a prequel about. The film, Double V Vega, has been abandoned since both Madsen and Travolta aged too much to do a prequel.
10. The closing credits of Jackie Brown gives special thanks to "Bert D'Angelo's Daughter," which is a reference to Tarantino's then-girlfriend, Mira Sorvino.
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In the 1970s, Paul Sorvino starred in the detective TV show Bert D'Angelo, Superstar, which makes Mira "Bert D'Angelo's Daughter." Mira herself can be spotted, out of focus, in the back of the courtroom during Jackie's arraignment.
11. Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington's characters in Django Unchained are intended to be descendants of John Shaft from the Shaft films, which would explain Washington's character's name: Broomhilda Von Schaft.
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12. In Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson's character, Jules, has a "Bad Mother F**ker" wallet that belongs to Tarantino in real life.
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The inscription is an earlier reference to Shaft and its theme song. Jackson would go on to star as Shaft in the 2000 remake.
13. Kill Bill was Quentin Tarantino's first feature-length film to have fewer than 100 instances of the word "f*ck."
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It pops up in the film a mere 17 times. Reservoir Dogs has 272, Pulp Fiction has 265 instances, and the later-released Death Proof boasts 148 in its extended cut.
14. We'll never find out why Inglourious Basterds is spelled the way it is.
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Tarantino has said, "Here's the thing. I'm never going to explain that. You do an artistic flourish like that, and to explain it would just take the piss out of it and invalidate the whole stroke in the first place."
15. The scene in Pulp Fiction when Vince plunges the adrenalin shot into Mia's chest was filmed by having John Travolta remove the needle, which was already in place, from Uma Thurman's chest and then running the film in reverse.
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If you watch very closely, you can see a mark disappear from Mia's chest.
16. Death Proof has a stronger relationship to Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich than you realized.
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In the first crash scene of Death Proof, the four girls discuss and listen to the music of Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich. Musician Eddie Cochran died in 1960 after being thrown through the windshield of his taxi. David Harman, a young police cadet overseeing the investigation surrounding the crash, ended up teaching himself guitar on Cochran's impounded Gretsch from the wreck. Harman would later be known by a different name: Dave Dee, of Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich.
17. Even though The Bride's name isn't revealed to audiences until Kill Bill Vol. 2, 'Beatrix Kiddo' is visible on her plane ticket to Okinawa in the first film.
Miramax Films
This is one of the movie's little Easter eggs, along with the sole of her shoe saying "F*CK U."
18. Reservoir Dogs star Kirk Baltz asked to ride in Michael Madsen's trunk to understand what the experience would really be like. Madsen agreed, but, while driving, he decided it was an ideal opportunity to get into character himself.
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He subsequently drove down a long alley plagued with potholes and through a Taco Bell drive-thru before returning to the lot and releasing his co-star. The soda his character is drinking in his first appearance in the warehouse is the same one he bought himself at the drive-thru.
19. That's really Leonardo DiCaprio's blood in Django Unchained!
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When Calvin Candie smashes his hand down on the dinner table in Django Unchained, actor Leonardo DiCaprio really broke a glass under his hand and began to bleed. He stayed in character, however, and continued with the scene, eventually smearing his blood all over Kerry Washington's face. When the scene ended, Leo received a standing ovation from everyone on set, and this was the take that ended up in the final cut.
20. In Inglourious Basterds, Shosanna Dreyfus' father, who was briefly seen hiding beneath the floorboards, was played by Swiss actor Patrick Elias.
Universal Pictures
Elias' father, Buddy, is a first cousin of Anne Frank.
21. Pam Grier had tested for the part of Jody in Pulp Fiction, but it eventually went to Rosanna Arquette. Tarantino never forgot her though, and he eventually crafted the role of Jackie Brown specifically for her.
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In fact, the titular character was initially a white woman named Jackie Burke.
22. Every character killed onscreen, with the exception of the anime scene, in the Kill Bill movies met their fate at the hands of a woman.
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Elle killed Budd and Pai Mei; O-Ren Ishii killed Boss Tanaka; Gogo killed that Tokyo businessman; The Bride, of course, killed Vernita Green, Buck, Gogo, the Crazy 88s, O-Ren Ishii, and, yes, Bill.
23. Even though she liked the movie, Madonna sent Tarantino a copy of her Erotica album with a note that read, "To Quentin, it's not about dick. It's about love. Madonna."
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The note is a reference to the opening conversation of Reservoir Dogs where the characters discuss the meaning of "Like A Virgin."
24. Tarantino came up with the idea for Death Proof afer buying a Volvo because he "didn't want to die in some auto accident like the one in Pulp Fiction."
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His friend joked in response to Quentin's preference for the safe vehicle by saying, "you could take any car and give it to a stunt team, and for $10,000 or $15,000, they can death-proof it for you," and the phrase stuck with Tarantino ever since.
25. Initially, Tarantino couldn't decide which character he wanted to play in Pulp Fiction.
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He was between Jimmie and Lance, but opted for Jimmie once he realized he wanted to be behind the camera during Mia's overdose.
26. Chiaki Kuriyama, the actress who plays Gogo in Kill Bill, accidentally hit Quentin Tarantino in the head with her meteor hammer while he was filming that scene.
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27. Jules' iconic Bible passage was mostly made up by Quentin Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson.
"And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee" is the only part that's even similar to what's in the scriptures. The righteous man and the shepherd? Not real.
28. At the end of Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt's character pretends to be an Italian actor named "Enzo Girolami," which sounds a little familiar...
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Enzo Girolami is the birth name of the director of the 1978 film, The Inglorious Bastards (Enzo G. Castellari).
29. As part of John Travolta's "research" into heroin addiction for the role of Vincent Vega, he (and his wife, happy to help) lined tequila shots along the edge of his hotel hot tub and drank them all while soaking in the hot water.
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Tarantino had referred Travolta to a recovering addict, who gave this piece of advice: "If you want to get the 'bottom envelope' feeling of that, get plastered on Tequila, and lie down in a hot pool. Then you will have barely touched the feeling of what it might be like to be on heroin."
30. Uma Thurman initially rejected the role of Mia Wallace.
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In order to get her to sign on to Pulp Fiction, a desperate Tarantino read her the script over the phone and convinced her. It was during the filming of the 1994 classic that the pair began to develop the concept of Kill Bill. Uma was given the script, along with the offer for the role of "The Bride," as a 30th birthday present from Tarantino.
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Mel Brooks, Molly Ringwald and Richard Dreyfuss were among the stars who turned out to pay tribute to director Paul Mazursky at a memorial service in California on Friday (05Sep14). The Oscar-nominated moviemaker passed away on 30 June (14), aged 84, after suffering a cardiac arrest, and his friends, family and former colleagues gathered at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, California on Friday to pay their last respects.
The memorial service was attended by famous faces including Nick Nolte, Ed Begley, Jr. and Elliott Gould, while a number of celebrity guests also gave tributes to the late director.
Speakers included actors George Segal, Michael Greene and Molly Ringwald, who called Mazursky the "best director I ever worked with," before singing I'll Be Seeing You, accompanied by her father Bob on piano.
Jaws star Richard Dreyfuss, who starred in three Mazursky films, explained how he idolised the filmmaker, saying, "When I was around Paul, I wanted to be Paul. And I like being Richard. But I wanted to be Paul."
Mel Brooks took to the stage last and used his tribute to compare Mazursky to legendary directors including Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica, telling the audience, "In my assessment, he was our Fellini, our De Sica. The best capturer of human behaviour on film was Paul."
The service ended with a montage of film clips and a performance by singer/actress Ellen Greene, who gave a rendition of Goodbye, My Friend.

Columbia Pictures via Everett Collection
A host of stars including Lena Dunham, Mel Brooks and Sandra Bernhard have spoken out to pay their respects to director Paul Mazursky following his death on Monday (30Jun14).
The five-times Oscar nominated director passed away after suffering a pulmonary cardiac arrest. He was 84. Following his death, famous fans and friends took to Twitter.com to share their respect for the Bob &amp; Carol &amp; Ted &amp; Alice filmmaker.
Girls creator Dunham heaped praise on Mazursky for his attitude to women in his films, writing, "Paul Mazursky created the most complex female characters and the most human cinematic moments. He will be missed, he will be emulated."
Blazing Saddles director Brooks shared his fond memories of his peer, adding, "Paul Mazursky- one of the most talented writer/dir.'s to ever make movies- died today. He was our American (Italian director Federico) Fellini. I will miss him dearly."
Comic Bernhard wrote, "The great director #paulmazursky sent me this note "your smart beautiful &amp; talented, what more can a girl ask for. a role in a #paulmazursky film? we'll miss him."
Guardians of the Galaxy screenwriter James Gunn mused, "RIP Paul Mazursky. Bob &amp; Carol &amp; Ted &amp; Alice is one of my top 10 favorite films. An amazing underrated talent."
It wasn't just Hollywood insiders who mourned Mazursky's passing - record producer Quincy Jones, who penned the score to Bob &amp; Carol &amp; Ted &amp; Alice, tweeted, "Rest In Peace to a great director and writer, my friend and collaborator Paul Mazursky. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. Love."
Mark Ronson wrote, "Paul Mazursky &amp; I once had a nice exchange right here on Twitter. He also directed Bob &amp; Carol &amp; Ted &amp; Alice, one of my favourite films ever."
Mazursky's other films include An Unmarried Woman, Blume in Love, and Harry and Tonto.

The woman who inspired Federico Fellini's classic film La Dolce Vita has died. Exotic dancer Aiche Nana passed away at a hospital in Rome, Italy on Wednesday (29Jan14) aged 78.
The Turkish beauty caused a stir in a Roman restaurant in 1958 by performing a striptease for revellers. The party was raided by police but not before photographer Tazio Secchiaroli caught her display on film.
The pictures were published days later, and inspired Fellini to make his 1960 movie about the love life of a gossip columnist. He paid homage to Nana in a strip scene featuring Nadia Gray.
Nana went on to land several small acting roles in Italian movies such as 1977's Viva Italia! and Marco Ferreri's Storia di Piera in 1983.

Italian actress Lorella De Luca has died, aged 73. She passed away on 9 January (14), after spending years battling a brain tumour which cost the star her sight.
De Luca began acting as a teenager and made her film debut in Federico Fellini's 1955 film Il Bidone opposite Oscar-winner Broderick Crawford, while her breakthrough role came a year later (56) in Dino Risi's classic comedy Poveri ma belli (Poor, But Handsome).
She later appeared in a number of Spaghetti Westerns, including A Pistol for Ringo and its sequel The Return of Ringo, under the name Hally Hammond. Both films were directed by her future husband Duccio Tessari, who also worked with her on movies including Una Voglia da Morire (1965) and Kiss Kiss... Bang Bang (1966).
She retired from acting in the 1990s following her husband's death.

Frequent movie collaborators Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese are to receive the Cinema Vanguard Award at The Santa Barbara International Film Festival in California next month (Feb14). The pair will be honoured on 6 February (14) at the historic Arlington Theatre.
DiCaprio and Scorsese have worked together on five movies, including Gangs of New York, The Departed and new film The Wolf of Wall Street.
Announcing the news on Thursday (02Jan14), SBIFF executive director Roger Durling says, "Scorsese and DiCaprio's partnership has become a legendary cinematic pas de deux recalling other great collaborations like John Ford and John Wayne, (Federico) Fellini and (Marcello) Mastroianni, John Huston and (Humphrey) Bogart - and even Scorsese and (Robert) De Niro."
Past recipients of the Vanguard Award include Amy Adams, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz.
Emma Thompson, Daniel Day-Lewis and Ben Affleck will be among the many celebrities who will be honoured at the 29th annual film festival.

Celebrated Italian director Ettore Scola will receive an innovation award at the upcoming Venice Film Festival. The moviemaker will be handed the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker prize during the event in Venice, Italy on 6 September (13).
The festival also includes a tribute to Federico Fellini, and Scola's film about his relationship with the director, Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico!, will premiere on the day he receives his prize.
Scola follows in the footsteps of American director Spike Lee, who received the innovation award last year (12).
The Venice Film Festival kicks off on 28 August (13) and runs until 7 September (13).

The veteran actress wasn't a fan of the horror filmmaker when she was considered for a role in his 1972 thriller Frenzy, and he thought she was too high-maintenance to join the cast.
She tells the Huffington Post, "When I was a very young actress, just starting out, I was sent for an audition - or a meeting with him. I don't think he would have auditioned me; I think he either thought you looked right or you didn't. I was arrogant and ignorant and, at that time, he was just not my kind of film director. I was into Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roberto Rossellini; those were the directors I loved.
"I was, you know, as one is when one is young, just ridiculously self-opinionated. So, I didn't really like him, and I know he didn't like me very much. He certainly didn't cast me. He took one look at me and went, 'Oh, good God. She's going to be a nightmare.' I didn't want to do it because all those roles were horrible anyway."

Every ten years since 1952, the British Film Institute's Sight &amp; Sound magazine has published a list titled the Critics' Top Ten Poll: the organization's ranking of the ten best movies ever made. And every ten years since 1962, there has been one standing consistency: Citizen Kane has always been BFI's number one pick. Until now.
The 2012 incarnation of the list has been published, and Citizen Kane has fallen to the number two spot. Taking its place: Alfred Hitchcock's classic Vertigo. Check out the full list below: 1) Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock
2) Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles
3) Tokyo Story (1953), directed by Yasujiro Ozu
4) La Règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game) (1939), directed by Jean Renoir
5) Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), directed by F. W. Murnau
6) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), directed by Stanley Kubrick
7) The Searchers (1956), directed by John Ford
8) Man with a Movie Camera (1929), directed by Dziga Vertov
9) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
10) 8½ (1963), directed by Federico FelliniVertigo is a great film, no doubt. Better than Kane? Maybe. But why has this movie, which came out in 1958 (before Citizen Kane's first turn as number one, even) suddenly been recognized as the superior picture?
The 1952 Top Ten list didn't include Citizen Kane at all, even though it had come out eleven years prior. But over time, it grew on people. Quite effectively. Now, over half a century after Vertigo's release, it has inched to the top of the list (the movie first graced the list in '82 at the number seven spot, inching up to number four in '92, and reaching number two in '02).
It took twenty-one years for Citizen Kane to earn the top spot, and fifty-four for Vertigo. Maybe a film's persistence of quality is considered by the critics brought on to devise their choices. As such, Vertigo maintaining its appeal so long after its creation would afford it a few extra points in the minds of contributors to the list. Or maybe there's just a stigma against pictures that have come out too recently. Is a critic deterred from recognizing the power of a movie that came out in his or her lifetime?
Four out of the ten recognized films came out prior to 1940. Even the most recent release on the list, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is forty-four years old. The critical community cherishes the old; and while this can be chalked up to the pioneering of new ideas and artistic methods, there are plenty of movies from 1970 onward that deserve credit for their achievement and influence.
This is reflected in the Directors' Top Ten Poll — a list that Sight &amp; Sound began publishing in 1992. This year's incarnation of the list includes a handful of more recent, and probably more widely familiar, pieces of cinematic art:1) Tokyo Story (1953), directed by Yasujiro Ozu
2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), directed by Stanley Kubrick
3) Citizen Kane (1941), directed by Orson Welles
4) 8½ (1963), directed by Federico Fellini
5) Taxi Driver (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese
6) Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola
7) The Godfather (1972), directed by Francis Ford Coppola
8) Vertigo (1968), directed by Alfred Hitchcock
9) Mirror (1975), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
10) Bicycle Thieves (1948), directed by Vittorio De SicaVertigo, Citizen Kane, and 2001 again find recognition, as do the films Tokyo Story and 8½. But beyond those are a slew of '70s pictures: The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, and the Russian film Mirror. But is there any chance that either of BFI's lists can recognize films from the '80s, '90s, even the 2000s, in the near future? And if so, what films would most likely earn highlighted spots? Some other contemporary lists could provide insight:
The American Film Institute recognizes the 1993 film Schindler's List as number nine on its Top 100 Movies list.
The rating results on Rotten Tomatoes event in a Best Movies of All Time list that is largely recent films. Here is the site's top five:1) Man on Wire (2008), directed by James Marsh
2) Toy Story 2 (1999), directed by Josh Lassiter (co-directed by Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich)
3) Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), directed by Alex Gibney
4) The Interrupters (2011), directed by Steve James
5) Toy Story (1995), directed by John Lassiter(It warrants mention that this was not created as a comprehensive list, but resulted automatically from the ratings applied to these movies by the site's active critics. Nevertheless, it's proof that people are still making terrific, important, resonant movies.)
Various outlets will cite some newer pictures as superior products. 1993's Shawshank Redemption is consistently the highest rated film on IMDb. The Google search for "Top Movies of All Time" results in thumbnails including 1982's E.T., 1994's Pulp Fiction, 2008's The Dark Knight, and 1994's Forrest Gump. And if you ask anyone from my high school, the absolute best thing to come out of the realm of cinema is invariably 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious. Seriously, we watched that movie all the time.
So if newer pictures are so prevalent in other venues' recognition of great cinematic art, why does the BFI tread so differently? Why does it feel more "respectable" to love older movies when plenty of newer ones are just as good? Why does it take fifty years to admit, "Okay, we can finally shift this film up to the number one spot"?
We won't know what turns the perspectives of Sight &amp; Sound will take for ten years now. And of course, there's nothing substantially wrong with one organization that seems to religiously prefer old to new — just as long as film continues to be appreciated, and contemporary artists are afforded due credit for pioneering new ideas and new means of storytelling. Because as many ideas there are that have been captured on screen, and as many devices for committing those ideas there are that have been utilized, there are still an endless supply being explored and invented today.
[Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures/Warner Bros., Universal Pictures]
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"I loved him. He loved me. He used to direct me while sitting on my knee." Donald Sutherland had an unusual relationship with late Italian director Federico Fellini while working on their 1976 movie Fellini's Casanova.

Made an appearance as himself in the American feature, "Alex in Wonderland"

Set up "Funny Face Shop" to make caricatures of GIs

Formed Capitolium production company with Alberto Lattuada

Set up "Funny Face Shop" to make caricatures of GIs; shop also took photographs and let soldiers make voice recordings that they could send home to families

Attended religious boarding schools as a child

Formed Federiz production company with Angelo Rizzoli; company went bankrupt in one year without making any films

First film as gag writer, "Lo Vedi come soi...lo vedi come sea?!"

Was a contributor to satirical magazine, "Il 420" in Florence; also worked for a time as a proofreader

Went to Rome where he worked as secretary for newspaper, "Il Popolo di Roma"

First film as co-scenarist "Paisan" (also assistant director)

Enrolled in the University of Rome Law School; did not attend classes but used his student status to avoid conscription; sold stories and cartoons to weekly magazine, "Marc Aurelio" (also became story editor in 1939) (date approximate)

Summary

Often called the most influential director of the 20th century, Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini was a master of the surreal, using striking images, autobiographical detail and disjointed narratives to create poetic films that impressed audiences across the world. As an emerging figure of the Italian Neorealism movement, Fellini started as a screenwriter before making his feature debut with the bittersweet "Variety Lights" (1950). In a few short years, he directed his first masterpiece, "La Strada" (1954), a tragically poignant tale that earned him international acclaim and award recognition. Following a pair of lesser works, Fellini reached the height of his talents and popularity with "La Dolce Vita" (1960), a wild satirical look at decadent Italian life that raised the ire of those it parodied while earning the adulation of critics, filmmakers and art house filmgoers. Fellini hit a third master stroke with the highly personal "8 1/2" (1963), a seamless blend of artifice and autobiography that put on full display the extent of his profound artistry. But as time passed and his films became more surreal, Fellini was tagged as being self-indulgent and saw his stature diminish, particularly after the explicit "Fellini Satyricon" (1969), which polarized critics and audiences. He had one final brush with greatness in directing "Amarcord" (1974), his most accessible film, before struggling for the rest of his career to find financial backing for his movies. Despite slipping into mediocrity later in life, Fellini nonetheless remained a filmmaking giant whose influence crossed generations all over the world.<p>Born on Jan. 20, 1920 in Rimini, Italy, a resort city on the Adriatic Sea, Fellini was raised by his father, Urbano, a baker who became a coffee and specialty groceries salesman, and his mother, Ida, who came from a prominent family that disapproved of her marriage. While being educated at religious boarding schools as a child, Fellini developed a love for drawing and staging puppet shows, while also becoming fascinated with the circuses and vaudeville performers his town attracted. Meanwhile, his Catholic education profoundly affected his later work, which - while critical of the church - was infused with strong spiritual dimensions. When was older, Fellini was forced into mandatory conscription with the Avanguardista Giovanile Fascista, a Fascist youth organization headed by Benito Mussolini. After writing for the satirical magazine, <i>Il 420</i> in Florence and also working as a proofreader, Fellini went to Rome, where he worked on the newspaper <I>Il Popolo di Roma</i>. In 1938, with war looming on the horizon, Fellini enrolled at the University of Rome Law School, but did not attend classes. Instead, he used his student status to avoid conscription while selling stories and cartoons to the weekly magazine, <i>Marc Aurelio</i>.<p>It was at <i>Marc Aurelio</i> that Fellini finally found success after years of struggling and almost plunging into poverty, thanks to his regular column "Will You Listen to What I Have to Say?" The column allowed him to interact with a number of film writers, which eventually opened the doors for him to the cinema. Also during this time, Fellini began trying his hand at writing screenplays, which led to working on his first film "Lo Vedi com soi lo vedi come sea!" (1939), as well as a gag writing for a traveling vaudeville troupe. After making his radio debut as a gag writer for on-air comedian Macario in 1940, Fellini worked as an uncredited screenwriter on "Documento Z 3" (1941). The following year, he met future wife, Giulietta Masina, in the studio office of a public radio station, where he landed a job to avoid being drafted into the war. The couple was married in 1943; Fellini later called Giulietta the single greatest influence on his work. Hiding out in an aunt's home until Mussolini's fall in July 1943, Fellini opened the Funny Face Shop, where he survived drawing caricatures of American G.I.s after the fall of Rome in June 1944.<p>After the war was over in Italy, Fellini landed his first important break in film when he was invited to collaborate on the script of "Rome, Open City" (1945), director Roberto Rossellini's seminal work of the Italian Neorealism movement. Written and shot when the Nazis still occupied Rome, "Open City" was an act of bravery among the filmmakers, as well as one of the first postwar European films to find an American audience. This landmark film was hailed by critics as a masterpiece of Italian cinema and earned Fellini an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. As a member of the Neorealist movement, Fellini penned a number of films during the mid- to late-1940s, working with Rossellini again on "Paisà" (1946), another widely hailed war film that earned him another Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. In 1948, Rossellini directed "L'Amore," one part of which was based on Fellini's original story "Il Miracolo" ("The Miracle") about a peasant woman (Anna Magnani) who thinks that the tramp (Fellini) who has impregnated her is St. Joseph and that she is about to give birth to Christ. Meanwhile, he embarked on a fruitful collaboration with director Alberto Lattuada, writing both "Il mulino del Po" ("The Mill on the Po") (1949) and "Senza pieta" ("Without Pity") (1950).<p>Having worked as an assistant director on a number of the films he wrote, Fellini made the natural transition to directing with "Variety Lights" (1950), a bittersweet drama that details the intrigues of a misfit group of travelling entertainers. He went on to direct "The White Sheik" (1952), a comedy about a woman's affair with a comic strip hero, and "I Vitelloni" (1953), a comedy-drama about the aimless lives of a group of young men. Though Fellini's earliest films were clearly in the neorealist tradition, from the start his interest in and sympathy for characters' eccentricities and his penchant for absurdist, sometimes clownish humor, made them distinctive from the work of his contemporaries. Meanwhile, Fellini's international breakthrough came with "La Strada" (1954), one of the most memorable and moving films of world cinema. Tragically poignant, "La Strada" is the story of an innocent, simple young woman (Masina) who is sold by her family to a brutish strongman in a traveling circus. Because he infused his film with his touch of the surreal, Fellini was accused by purists of violating the precepts of Neorealism. Ultimately, "La Strada" was a poetic and expressive parable that became Fellini's first unquestioned masterpiece, while earning him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film during the category's first year in competition.<p>After two very strong but less important works - "Il Bidone" ("The Swindlers") (1955) and "Nights of Cabiria" (1956), with the latter winning Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards - Fellini directed his two most influential masterworks: "La Dolce Vita" (1959) and "8 1/2" (1963). "La Dolce Vita" was a three-hour, panoramic view of contemporary Italian society as seen from the perspective of a journalist, played by Fellini's alter ego, Marcello Mastroianni. A savage, if subtle satire which exposes his perception of the worthless hedonism of Italian society, "La Dolce Vita" provided a wealth of unforgettable images: from its opening - a parody of the Ascension as a helicopter transports a suspended statue of Christ over rooftops with sunbathing women in bikinis - to its signature scene of bosomy Anita Ekberg bathing in the Trevi Fountain. The film was a major international hit that was condemned by both the Catholic Church for its casual depiction of suicide and sexual themes, and by the Italian government for its scathing criticism of Italy. Ultimately, "La Dolce Vita" was the greatest and most important film to emerge from Europe in the 1960s, and earned Fellini an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and his third Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.<p>Celebrated as a brilliant social critic, Fellini found himself under careful scrutiny by the international community, which anxiously awaited his next film. But like any long-suffering artist, he suffered from a bout of writer's block, which he transformed into his most personal work, "8 1/2." The film was a brilliant gamble, as Fellini took his uncertainty about what film to make next and ended up creating one about an internationally acclaimed director who does not know what film to make next, thus confronting his personal confusions head-on. Once again, Mastroianni played the director's alter ego, and again Fellini was Oscar-nominated as Best Director. Even the name of the film itself came directly from his own experiences: Having directed six features, co-directed another - counting as one-half - and helmed episodes of two anthology films - each also counting as a half - Fellini realized he had made 7 1/2 films and hence chose the title "8 1/2" for his most reflexive film. For the first time, surreal dream imagery clearly dominated, with no clear demarcation between fantasy and reality in this groundbreaking and exceptionally influential film.<p>Fellini's next film, "Juliet of the Spirits" (1965), was his first in color. Again starring Masina, whose career was at a low ebb and with whom Fellini had been having personal problems, "Juliet" applied the methods of his previous two films to examine the psyche of a troubled upper-class housewife. For the first time, the voices of those critics who attacked Fellini for self-indulgence were louder than those who praised him for his perceptive vision. Fellini's next film, "Fellini Satyricon" (1969), which was loosely based on extant parts of Petronius' <i>Satyricon</i>, was the most phantasmagorical of all Fellini's works and followed the bawdy adventures of bisexual characters in the pre-Christian world. Fragmentary and at times incomprehensible, the dream-like "Fellini Satyricon" was best described by the director himself as a science fiction of the past. It was also his most decadent and undisciplined work, a sensuous and explicit film featuring wildly divergent and disturbing images of sex and nudity, dwarves, earthquakes, hermaphrodites, decapitation, erotic feasts and orgies, suicide, mythological creatures, violence and hundreds of the most grotesque extras ever assembled. Naturally, the film polarized critics, with some declaring that Fellini's self-indulgence had run amuck, while others praised it as a new kind of non-linear cinema. Still, it earned Fellini his second Oscar nomination for Best Director.<p>Fellini's work since "Satyricon" was seen by many as less focused and certainly more inconsistent. Retreating from the excess of "Satyricon," he directed a set of more modest films that possessed striking imagery while diminishing the distinctions between fiction film and documentary. With "The Clowns" (1970), Fellini dealt with his life-long love of circuses, while "Fellini's Roma" (1972) centered on his love-hate relationship with the Eternal City. Meanwhile, the critical, potent but little-seen "Orchestra Rehearsal" (1978), his most overtly political work, portrayed the orchestra as a metaphor for discordant Italian politics. Perhaps his most acclaimed post-"Satyricon" film was "Amarcord" (1974), an accessible work which can be seen as a summation to that point of his autobiographical impulse. Lovingly describing Fellini's Rimini boyhood and peppered with offbeat humor, "Amarcord" organized its images through a strong emphasis on the natural cycle and a coherent narrative, though it also contained such memorable flights of fancy as a peacock that appears during the winter snow. "Amarcord" earned Fellini his third and final Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards.<p>Though "Amarcord" was his fourth film to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Fellini found it increasingly difficult to find financial backing and distributors for his films in the 1980s. The downturn in his critical reputation and the inaccessibility of several key films led many to dismiss them either as unimportant or as further signs of his alleged self-indulgence. "City of Women" (1980) was delightful enough, but suffered from a lack of cohesion and a long running time. Still, it contained a number of striking images that unfortunately failed to overcome its muddled take on men's conflicting feelings toward women. He fared better with his next effort, "And the Ship Sails On" (1983), which showed that his flair for flamboyant characterization had not lost its comic or satiric prowess. Set on a luxury liner in 1914, the film focused on a group of aristocrats, politicians, singers and even a rhinoceros bound for a remote island to scatter the ashes of a famed opera singer. All was carefully crafted to underscore the superficiality of bourgeois life. He next directed "Ginger and Fred" (1985), which was heavily criticized upon its release and was the last to get a full art-house run in the United States, though it did contain its share of touching and amusing moments featuring longtime collaborators Masina and Mastroianni.<p>With "Intervista" (1987), Fellini carried the reflective outlook of his later years around full circle. A fitting companion piece to "8 1/2" and a re-visitation with Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg of that other landmark, "La Dolce Vita," Fellini again directly confronted his own position and status as a filmmaker, this time with a sadder, more wistful nostalgia than he had as a younger man. His last completed film, "Voice of the Moon" (1990), was considered by some critics to be his most surreal. Like "Intervista," it was a small film chock-full of references and last-minute thoughts, altogether alternately strange and sad. "Voice of the Moon" turned out to be an appropriate postscript to a film career filled with laughter and wonder at the bizarre circus of life. Critics at the time were harsh, however, with many panning it at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. After sitting down with Canadian filmmaker Damian Pettigrew for a series of long interviews that were later shown in the documentary "Fellini: I'm a Born Liar" (2002), Fellini received an Honorary Oscar in 1992 that was presented to him by Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. The following year, however, Fellini suffered a series of health problems, including two strokes that ultimately ended his life on Oct. 31, 1993. He was 73 years old.<p><i>By Shawn Dwyer</i>

Name

Role

Comments

Ida Fellini

Mother

Urbano Fellini

Father

Federichino Fellini

Son

born on March 22, 1945; mother, Giulietta Masina; lived only two weeks

Riccardo Fellini

Brother

born on February 21, 1921; appeared in Fellini's films; died on March 26, 1991

Maddalena Fellini

Sister

born pn October 17, 1929

Giulietta Masina

Wife

married on October 30, 1943 after a four-month courtship; died on March 23, 1994 at age 73; appeared in seven of husband's films from "Luci del Varieta/Variety Lights" (1950) to "Ginger et Fred/Ginger and Fred" (1986)

Education

For a number of years Fellini told interviewers that he ran away from home to join a circus when he was either seven or eight years old, but in his later years he admitted that the story was a fabrication "to help journalists" who wanted to explain or autobiographically justify Fellini's fascination with circuses and carnivals and their recurring presence in his films.

"I have the feeling that all my films are about women. . . . They represent myth, mystery, diversity, fascination, the thirst for knowledge and the search for one's own identity. . . . I even see the cinema itself as a woman, with its alternation of light and darkness, of appearing and disappearing images. Going to the cinema is like returning to the womb, you sit there still and meditative in the darkness, waiting for life to appear on the screen. One should go to the cinema with the innocence of a fetus." --Fellini in 1981

The November 1, 1993 NEW YORK POST quotes director Spike Lee's response to seeing his first Fellini film when he was still a student in high school: "It really just for me emphasized . . . what you could do. There are no boundaries. There are no limits."

Honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center (1985).

Given a honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Columbia University in 1970.